Assassin’s Creed Red’s female protagonist appears to have been leaked online. According to Eurogamer, Ubisoft writer Pierre Boudreau accidentally set his LinkedIn header image to the unnamed protagonist, who wears the iconic hooded cloak against a red background while wielding a katana. The original photo with the signature logo has since been replaced with an image of Eivor, the main character of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. This matches the studio’s own claims from a 2022 presentation, which confirmed that players will be sent to feudal Japan for the upcoming installment, which would reportedly revisit open-world RPG elements.
Currently, Assassin’s Creed Codename Red doesn’t have a release date, although earlier this year it was rumored to be in 2024, which is in line with Ubisoft’s annual launch cycle formula. An InsiderGaming report further revealed that the game will feature two main characters: the aforementioned female shinobi and an African refugee-turned-samurai, who appears to be inspired by the real Yasuke, who was active during Japan’s Sengoku period. It’s unclear how these two characters will coexist in the game – whether we’ll play as both or simply choose one at the start, similar to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, remains to be seen. Despite returning to the controversial open-world style, it looks like Assassin’s Creed Red will be heavy on stealth, as players hide in the shadows and extinguish torches from afar.
Ubisoft Quebec – known for developing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – will be tasked with creating Assassin’s Creed Red under the leadership of Jonathan Dumont. It’s part of the publisher’s upcoming central hub called Assassin’s Creed Infinity, which is designed to tie together a number of different AC titles, with plans for some standalone multiplayer experiences in the future. “Infinity will be a hub that will bring together all our different experiences and our players in meaningful ways,” said Marc-Alexis Côté, VP of Assassin’s Creed, during the 2022 Ubisoft Forward event. At the time, Ubisoft also confirmed a dark entry into the AC franchise, codenamed Hexe, which was set during the final stages of the Holy Roman Empire, amid the witch trials. A teaser for the same was also dropped, which revealed a talisman in the forest, in the form of the Assassin’s Creed logo.
Earlier this month, the publisher launched Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which became Ubisoft’s biggest new-gen launch in terms of unit sales, in less than a week. In that time, players collectively took 60 million leaps of faith and spent 479 years parkouring on the rooftops of ninth-century Baghdad. We’ve also been given a launch date for the long-running Assassin’s Creed VR project called Nexus, which will be set from the perspective of three iconic assassins from the series: Ezio Auditore, Connor Kenway and Kassandra. The game is now available for pre-order on the Meta Quest VR and will launch on November 16th.
Currently, there is no release date for Assassin’s Creed Red, but when it does release, we can expect it to appear on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.